Lord_Majestic - 1:15 pm on Oct 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

I forgot to add - we'd be stuck with single button Apple mice - just imagine your mouse having just one button! :o

Microsoft have never actually invented anything significant, useful and original

They invented OS that was able to run older software without recompiles. That was pretty novel approach - that alone helped them win since every new OS they had still allowed to run all or most of the legacy software. That's one of the key reasons why Intel won the processor wars too - even Apple had to now use them.

Microsoft are not now, nor have they ever been innovators.

I don't think this is a correct point of view at all, granted recently Microsoft was on defensive more copying than inventing, however in the 90s they were pretty positive force for good. Just like Google in the current decade (which is about to end).